Holy Orders

When the body of his daughter's friend is brought to his autopsy table, Quirke is plunged into a world of corruption that takes him to religion's darkest corners

"At first they thought it was the body of a child. Then they noticed the pubic hair and the nicotine stains on the fingers."

So begins the latest Quirke case, a story set in Dublin at a moment when newspapers are censored, social conventions are strictly defined, and appalling crimes are hushed up. Why? Because in post-war Ireland the Catholic Church controls the lives of nearly everyone. But when his daughter Phoebe loses her close friend Jimmy Minor to murder, Quirke can no longer play by the Church's rules. Together with Inspector Hackett, his sometime partner, Quirke investigates Jimmy's death and learns just how far the Church will go to protect its own.

Haunting, fierce, and brilliantly plotted, this is Benjamin Black writing at the top of his form. His inimitable creation, the endlessly curious Quirke, brings a pathologist's unique understanding of death to unlock secrets that have been shielded for centuries.


Genre: Mystery